Official Languages Committee on Feb. 15th, 2011

[Catherine MacLeod]

Are you referring to the position as champion?

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Yes, the Department of Health got 30% on active offer. You say that you want to work energetically with your colleagues. That is what you said.

What differences have you noticed since you arrived in June?

[Catherine MacLeod]

There is still some work to be done, that is for sure. However, we have done a lot of work since June, starting with discussions at the executive level and a change in perspective in the area of official languages, specifically in the area of client services. We have had discussions with the regions. As Ms. Yeates said, we have also determined what we are going to put into our action plan, including ways of measuring our performance.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

Before the commissioner did his investigation, had anyone noticed that things were not going well in the area of official languages? The idea of official languages is not new; the act has existed for 40 years.

We thank the commissioner for having pulled out these figures. It would seem [Inaudible] that it was a wake up call for everyone, or will be. We can only hope that it does wake them up. This has been around for 40 years.

[Glenda Yeates]

Thank you for your question.

Mr. Chair, we had adopted many measures before this report, of course, and we have made some progress.

While we know that, for example, as was noted by the member, our active offer of “Hello, Bonjour” is at 30%, which is not where we want to be, what we do find is that we've actually made significant improvement in the actual conversation that follows. Are people able to, once they have the conversation, start speaking in the language of their choice? In fact, we've done significantly better than we had done previously at that conversation and being able to offer services in the language of the choice of the Canadian.

So we actually find these ongoing reports very helpful. They help us understand where to focus. We focused and made improvements in certain areas. Clearly, we have not made the improvements....

Our grades are quite constant in our ability to say hello; bonjour. That is an area where we will be making some effort, to improve our performance, of course.

[Yvon Godin, NDP, Acadie—Bathurst, NB]

I know that the commissioner was quite interested in the matter of saying “Hello; bonjour”. However, imagine you are on Air Canada, and the flight attendant says “Hello; bonjour”, but, when you ask for a glass of orange juice, she says “I don't speak French”. “Jus d'orange” and “orange juice” sounds practically identical.

We are trying to pretend that all our problems will be solved if we say “Hello; bonjour”. But I have some difficulty with the service we have a right to expect after someone says “Hello; bonjour” to us. You really have to put yourself in other people's shoes. If people want service in their language, they have to go to [Inaudible--Editor] the end of the line and wait for someone to come and serve them. They should get the same treatment.

I am referring to service for individuals. It goes beyond “Hello; bonjour”. We could also raise our hands and not need to speak at all. I am talking about the way in which you serve clients. You got 30% for active offer. Saying “Hello; bonjour” to me does not make me all that happy. [Inaudible--Editor]. The issue is really about how you offer services to clients, and what is being done to improve things.

[Glenda Yeates]

Thank you for your question.

We are very thoughtful that the active service is what really matters. I guess I would just say that the predominance of my career has been in health care. I'm very aware of how important it is for people to receive services about their health in the language of their choice. So we agree that it is the service that is fundamental.

Interestingly, we've made more progress; we're still not satisfied with where we are, but we've made more progress at actually providing the services to Canadians, so we see a significant increase there. Again, we're not saying we're where we want to be in terms of the ability to provide the service, but that is at over 50%.

Interestingly, in the place where we haven't moved, we do very well. We have one of the highest notes or marks the commissioner gave for service by e-mail. We were at 89% for service by e-mail. We were at 85% for the phone offer. We were over 50% for the actual service.

Where we still have difficulty is the “Hello, Bonjour”, and I'm absolutely in agreement with the member that it is just the beginning of the conversation. It is actually the provision of the service that is the thing that I think is most important to Canadians, and I'm happy to report to the committee that we have made some significant progress there.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you very much, Mr. Godin.

We will begin the first round with Mr. Généreux.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you very much to all of you for being here this morning.

Ms. Yeates, in your brief, it says, in the last paragraph on page 8: "By 2013, Health Canada will have invested more than $300 million over 10 years to improve access to health care for official language minority communities."

The Standing Committee on Official Languages was in Canada's North last week. I don't know exactly what the relationship is between Health Canada and the Department of Health of the Northwest Territories—perhaps my question should go to Mr. Étienne—but we were clearly told that it was a huge challenge to provide services in Canada's North. Indeed, it is difficult to recruit people who are willing to go work in the North, at any level in the health care system.

The amount of $300 million over 10 years is nevertheless very significant. What kinds of results are you expecting? Is it possible to believe that by 2013, in the Northwest Territories, there will be better health care in French with this program, in the Far North? Is it possible to imagine that?

[Glenda Yeates]

Thank you very much for the question.

Mr. Chair, I am very pleased to respond to that.

Regarding the $300 million, we are very proud of our support for minority communities across the country. We began with consultations with minority communities. We asked them what their priorities were and what problems they had to face in the area of access to health care services. We are generally not the level of government which provides these services, but we can nevertheless provide training programs, for instance.

I can give you a couple of examples. The Government of Alberta put in place a telephone system to provide information and to answer questions such as: How do I get to the emergency department? There is a health care network in Alberta which said that this type of service was needed in French in Alberta. As a result, because of this type of contribution, we now have a French telephone service within Alberta's health care network.

A little earlier, you referred to services in the North. I could give you examples which also apply to northern Canada. In the Yukon, for example, a community health care partnership, which had received funding, updated the register of health care professionals and of bilingual social services, and it is fairly available to the public.

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

You gave us an interesting example. Over the last few months, several representatives from departments have told us that their department was doing a good job. In fact, the commissioner agreed, in light of the marks he gave to the various levels of various departments.

Regarding the telephone system which is now in operation in Alberta—is that right?—and which you have just mentioned, you are probably in a position to assess the results. If this turns out to be a good service, would it be possible to apply it throughout Canada? Or does it only work in Alberta? Perhaps it could also be put to good use in the Northwest Territories, for example.

[Glenda Yeates]

You asked whether this service is now available in Alberta. I must admit that I am not sure. I'll look into it. I know that it's one of our projects, but I could not tell you whether it is truly available to the public at this moment. I will check.

In terms of the support for minority language communities, we have dealt with each community. We've worked with a network in each area, because the needs have not been the same. In Alberta that was one of the needs they had flagged. In the Yukon, they flagged a different need. In New Brunswick and parts of Quebec, they have flagged other needs.

I think one reason the commissioner gave us an A in this area of actually supporting official language minority communities was that we didn't assume we knew what those communities wanted in each case. We actually worked with those communities to say, where's the gap?

Where is the gap in your province, in your community? What do you want? We can't do everything, but we can ask what the priorities are, can't we?

If I've understood, in reading the commissioner's report, I think the projects are very strong, but the other thing is that these are not Health Canada's ideas; they are the ideas of the community, which gave us—

[Bernard Généreux, Conservative, Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, QC]

And lastly, I would like to ask about the relationships within the Northwest Territories. Is it the same situation as that of all other Canadian provinces? Do the territories have to provide the services, or does Health Canada do so in a more direct manner?

[Glenda Yeates]

No, generally speaking, it's the same thing, the provinces and the territories provide health care services.

[The Chair, Conservative, Steven Blaney]

Thank you.

Thank you very much, Mr. Généreux.

We will begin our second round with Ms. Zarac.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

In his report, the Commissioner of Official Languages said that each year, you organize round tables. I would like to know where and how these tables take place. Who is invited to these round tables? Is it always the same particular group? How does that work?

[Glenda Yeates]

Thank you for the question.

I don't have my notes on the entire process with me. However, I can ask for them and inform the committee members about these processes. I know that there is a network in every region.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Can you send the information to the committee?

[Glenda Yeates]

Yes, absolutely, with pleasure.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Thank you.

In 2009, there was a symposium which specifically dealt with access to services, as well as the teaching of science.

Again, I would like to know who was at the symposium—if you have this information—and what came out of the 2009 symposium.

[Glenda Yeates]

Thank you for the question.

Mr. Chairman, I will gladly respond to that.

As I said, a symposium was held in November 2009. There were about 120 participants from across the country. I can provide the committee with the list of participants. I do not have it with me, but it will be my pleasure to provide it to you.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Yes, please.

So what were the results of this symposium and what came out of it?

[Glenda Yeates]

I think that it was the continuation of this update.

How are we doing? What is the future? What is working well.

Perhaps I'll ask my colleague Catherine to follow up on that, but in general, it was touching base, here's what we've done thus far, tell us your future aspirations, how we are doing, and the issues that people are encountering.

[Lise Zarac, Liberal, LaSalle—Émard, QC]

Did a report come out of the symposium?

[Glenda Yeates]

I think so, but I will ask my colleague.